


Hide and Seek

by LittleWritings



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Kissing, Lots of kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-15
Updated: 2015-08-15
Packaged: 2018-04-14 18:54:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4575906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleWritings/pseuds/LittleWritings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ceria comes up with a game and invites Cullen to play. Trouble ensues. Prepare for the fluff and make out sessions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hide and Seek

**Author's Note:**

  * For [stiliskni](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stiliskni/gifts).



The Commander was late. The Commander was never late, yet there they were, waiting in the war room, for the most punctual among them. Josephine was too absorbed in her clipboard to really notice, Leliana stood still and stared at the war table. Ceria fidgeted and continued to look at the door, expectant. Leliana looked up with a raised eyebrow when Ceria sighed. The mage flicked a gaze at the redhead and then cleared her throat.  
“I’ll go look for him.” She left the room quickly before anyone could reply. 

It had all started as an innocent game. She had sent him a message telling him to meet her under the main hall of Skyhold in that collection of alcohol of hers. The message had come wedged in the middle of the most recent stack of reports delivered to him. They were supposed to be finished for the following day so he figured her message could be important. So, naturally, he finished the report he had been poring over for the last few hours and then set out for the determined meeting place.  
She was slouched against the wall when he arrived, fingers tapping idly on the brick behind her. She straightened up when she saw him, blowing out a sigh and commenting on his tardiness.  
“I’ve been here for almost an hour. Did you not get my message right away?” She folded her arms in front of her chest, her blue eyes expectant.  
“I had to finish the report I was working on before I could come—” She cut him off with a roll of her eyes and a scoff.  
“That’s just too bad isn’t it? We won’t have much time now. We’ll have to be to the war room soon.” He had forgotten about the appointment in the war room, something about planning their next move against Corypheus, and he was going to ask her for more information... But then he stopped. There was a wicked sort of twinkle in her eye that made his stomach flutter. He waited for her to act, the moment growing longer, the tension building into a sweet sort of anticipation. When she leaned toward him, leaving only a hair’s breadth between them, he was nearly certain the tension would break him. For her to be so close only to stop there was infuriating. She let out a chuckle as she held position, her eyes daring him to close the space between them. He was nearly there; nearly ready to just take her right there when she closed the distance herself, her lips just barely brushing his.  
“Tag,” she breathed, “you’re it.” She disappeared around the corner. He stood there, dumbstruck and annoyed. All that tension, all that waiting for that? The kiss had lasted less than a second. He shook himself, finding his focus, and rounded the corner. His eyes searched every corner of the room for her, trying to identify hiding places. When it became clear she wasn’t in that room, he prowled down a hallway, his gaze snapping from hiding place to hiding place quickly. He didn’t have the time or the patience to be teased in such a way. He knew he had gone too far when he heard her faint giggle from a particularly dark corner of the stairs leading back up to the main fortress of Skyhold. He whirled and spotted her quickly, closing the distance between them in two strides and grabbing her up in his arms, kissing her hard and hungry. She smiled against his lips, breaking the kiss quickly and running away again, taking the stairs two at a time. He could have growled, though the game of cat and mouse was just intriguing enough to keep him more curious than aggravated.  
Each time he found her he was rewarded with a longer kiss, though she got more and more creative in her hiding places as they moved through Skyhold. After a particularly heated and prolonged kiss, he had to take a moment to catch his breath and find his bearings, his head spinning slightly. The woman would drive him mad. Where others had failed, she would succeed. She was too good for him. They were in the upper levels of Skyhold at that point, in one of the rooms that had yet to be renovated. The sun was painting the room orange through the shattered roof and he guessed that it was nearly time for them to get back to business. He debated simply heading Ceria off to the war room, getting one last kiss from her before their colleagues arrived, but his more primal side got the better of him. The chase held too much promise, too much adrenaline. His face pulled up in a half smile and he shook his head before following in her footsteps. He soon reached a door and a darkened hallway, each holding the promise of Ceria beyond. He’d thought he’d heard footsteps down the hallway not long ago, but then, that seemed a bit too obvious. He decided to take the door instead, the challenge pulling him forward.  
His confidence began to wane when the only sound that bounced back to him from the dark hallway beyond the door him was his own footsteps. He became less concerned with finding Ceria than with finding a way out when he seemed to have passed the same door twice in five minutes. The only problem was, he could never remember ever being in that hallway and everything looked the same. Moldy old doors led to dirty old rooms filled with dilapidated old furniture. It was too easy for him to get turned around. Eventually he decided that picking a room and staying in it would help his chances of getting out, if only to make it easier to find him. The window of the room he chose showed a sky that was beginning to bruise blue and purple after the bright light of day. He’d missed the meeting, which meant that he’d surely be missed by the others. He cursed himself for falling prey to Ceria’s games. She swayed him too easily from his duties. Not that it was all bad; it just seemed to get him into more trouble. Cullen sat with his back against the wall, facing the door. All there was to do now, was wait.

It was all just an innocent game. She’d managed to extricate herself from his passionate embrace, and skitter away, the cool, damp air of the disused hallways quickly clearing her head of any foggy ideas. When she’d reached the door and the hallway, she took the hallway, a few turns and then escaped through the door at the end, appearing back in the warm light of Skyhold proper. She’d leaned against the door and smiled, closing her eyes. She had to admit, this was one of her more brilliant ideas. But it was getting late and she would be expected in the war room. She let out a sigh and ran a hand through her mussed hair, hoping it didn’t look too disheveled from her and Cullen’s game. She brushed a hand over the front of her leathers and started off at a brisk pace towards the war room, trying to get her brain to focus there instead of the dark nooks and crannies that had featured in her more recent past.  
When Cullen didn’t show up to the war room, Ceria had to struggle not to worry too much. She definitely couldn’t let on that she knew anything about his absence with the other two advisors around, lest she get a lecture, or worse, caused rumors to begin flying about the castle. So, when she couldn’t bear waiting any longer, she excused herself and went back to that dark hallway where they had last been together. It was empty and quiet, so she wondered if he had moved on. Maybe he forgot they had a meeting? But no, Cullen didn’t forget such things. She meandered down the hallway, pushing doors open and looking inside for him, but he was nowhere to be seen. Maybe he hadn’t felt well and had gone back to his tower; neglecting to send word that he would not attend the meeting. But no, that didn’t seem like him either. She reached the junction of the hallway and the door and stopped, thinking. Perhaps she should go check the rest of Skyhold, just in case he did have something else to do. She turned and jogged away, leaving the door behind.  
After scouring the entire building twice and checking with all of his messengers only to find nothing of any help to her, Ceria returned to the dark hallway with Dorian in tow. She had tried her best not to give anything away, no need to cause undue alarm. She knew that Dorian would keep her secret, for a time at least, so she could trust his help. He was friends with both parties, after all.   
“You were doing what?” He sounded mildly appalled. She threw a glance over her shoulder at him and then waved her hand dismissively.  
“It was a harmless game, what does it matter what we were doing?” Her fingers drummed against her staff impatiently as she pushed another door open only to find the room empty.  
“You could’ve picked a place with higher standards for cleanliness.” Dorian said, making a small disgusted noise.  
“Well, that wasn’t exactly a high priority for my plans at that point in time.” Another empty room, she could’ve screamed. She would have, had secrecy not been a priority on this mission. She needed this to be kept as quiet as possible.  
“Yes, well, the next time you lose your commander while “talking strategy” somewhere like this, leave me out of it.” Dorian replied, checking a room off to the left. They checked all the rooms in that hallway until they reached the door that did not lead into a room, but into a different hallway. It was getting later than she would have liked and she was beginning to worry that she might be out of her depth on this one. Oh, what had she done this time? Cullen would not approve. She shook her head, reminding herself that he surely did not approve of being lost in Skyhold. As they walked through the door into the yet unsearched hallway, she decided they would make better time checking this area of the castle if they split up. If they didn’t find him, she’d have to call in reinforcements, like it or not. She could not simply lose the commander of her armies.  
They were almost through checking all the rooms; she could see Dorian’s firelight at the end of the hall. Her mouth had gone dry and her stomach growled at its missed dinner. She was beginning to imagine the looks on everyone’s faces when she asked for their help. How could she explain this? She couldn’t very well tell everyone that she had wanted some time alone with the commander for recreational purposes. The worries were eating at her brain when Dorian called down the hall to her.  
“Ceria, I’ve found him.” The words took a moment to register. Then she was flying down the hall and through the door into his arms.  
“Oh Cullen I’m so sor—” he cut off her apology with a rough kiss. She fell into it, responding by throwing her arms around his neck and pulling him closer to her. Dorian cleared his throat from behind them, breaking the moment.  
“Don’t ever,” the word hung heavy in the air, “leave me like that again. Do you understand?” His voice held the same command that it did when he spoke with his recruits. Ceria looked up at him, eyes wide as she nodded in response.  
“I don’t like to be lost in my own castle. I’m going to have a survey crew up here as soon as I can. It’s a liability.” Cullen was gazing around the room as he held her, his eyes wary. She knew she should take him seriously, but something about the whole situation was just too much for her and she started to laugh. The commander returned his gaze to her, an eyebrow raised.  
“It’s always business with you.” She said, resting her head on his chest while her fingers played in the fur on his shoulders.  
“It’s true! We must know the full capacity of the castle if we are to adequately defend against—” He didn’t get very far into his explanation before she leaned up and kissed him, a small, sweet thing, before she pulled back with a wide grin.  
“You’ll have to think of a good explanation for this, excursion, to your men.” Her tone was playful. In the half light of Dorian’s fire she saw a blush creep up Cullen’s cheeks as he looked away. Dorian laughed and she held her commander tight, just glad that he hadn’t been lost for good.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for my tumblr friend's birthday. It's a little late, but oh well. I hope you all enjoyed it.


End file.
